Excellent post Mesl! And for once Ezoner, we agree! There is no way for the US to be competetive with the current rules. That is why its high time to protect our workers over stockholders. I would advocate either TOTAL repeal of free-trade agreements, or the introduction of a new set of tariffs that require corporations(Nike, etc) to follow labor/environmental standards to be able to bring their cheap crap back tax-free.

“It's not just China. Germany, France, Switzerland, Israel, and Italy just to name a few are all to happy to trade TO us but when it comes to buying American, they are very limiting to importing our goods.” It is shocking, countries that actually protect their industries! How dare they! Maybe our leaders should start protecting the American workers just like other countries are protecting their workers! We keep electing politicians that keep selling us out to the lowest bidder. What happens when we sign trade deals with countries with lower standards of living than ours? Our standard of living decreases!

Fusion -- you must be joking.... you cannot devalue the dollar enough nor increase Chinese pay of the endless stream of low cost labor moving to the city enough to make the US competitive. Impossible. How much time have you spent there. I lived there for nearly a year. I know. I know what they are doing and how they approach it.

I was also shopping -- CD's for 50 cent, movies for $1, Adobe Professional for $1. You can't lower the cost nor increase the productivity enough. Its impossible.

It's not just China. Germany, France, Switzerland, Israel, and Italy just to name a few are all to happy to trade TO us but when it comes to buying American, they are very limiting to importing our goods.
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In another story I've read that if production costs in China continue to rise at the current trend, the US will gain some traction at being competitive. Considering the expenses of labor and shipping from China, the US may soon become more attractive for manufacturing.

http://gazettextra.com/weblogs/gen-x-j-v...

mistergee- I'm glad that you, in particular, are so smart, seasoned with a little nastiness.
But, yes, you're right, just because I've seen it in print before doesn't mean I need to put it in there.....I agree, the word "sarcasm" wasn't needed and it looks bad.

Some of us are smart enough (thanks to teachers all across the country) to know sarcasm when we read it. We really didn't need it spelled out. However if you feel the need to please continue truth1. LOL.

I'm a politician, forget about all that....

Like I said,watch the "game" and "vote", thats all you need to do.

Scrap metal prices were way up just recently, that is because China was buying. So much from the US goes overseas. A true statement when it is said China wants to control manufacturing. We send technology over there and they copy it and claim it as their own.

Boy, talking about the "magnet crisis" as some kind of juming off point for the trade defecit with China? GWB was the pres that gave China "most favorite trading" status. the united states has lost 10-15 million manufacturing jobs that "arent coming back" and some want to blame Obama? While Obama has been TREMENDOUSLY disappointing on trade, republicans seem to be the party of free trade. That being said Clinton signed Nafta which has cost the US another 8-10 million jobs.
A solution? Repeal ALL trade deals now and renegotiate them based on labor and environmental standards. Make them play fair or pay HUGE tariffs to bring their crap back here. Why should a business be able to move their operations to China, pay their workers 10 dollars a month to make things, and bring them back here for free? The tax burden should be shifted to these ANTI-AMERICAN companies that are the biggest source of the unemployment problems in this country. This is the kind of ignorance that so many conservatives seem to ignore. It is time for this to end. Protectionism is the only way to return our economy to prosperity, without destroying education, or destroying medicare. there are very simple solutions out there, just no politicians courageous enough to make it happen. Paul Ryan is all for this stuff! These are the very corporations that he and Ron Johnson want to give tax BREAKS to! Ron Johnson supports free-trade to China!

Why would anyone pay attention to what ezoner said? After all, don't we have much more important things to attend to like "ncaa", "packers", "superbowl", and all those other immensely important things??
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Just watch the "game" and keep "voting",and don't do anything else, It'll be alright(sarcasm).

Not to mention that China is America's banker.

@Ezoner- Thank you for your post. It was truly informative and leads me to want to pay more attention.

Its more complicated than most think and the problems run deeper than just protectionism.

Example -- nearly all rare earth magnets / magnet materials come from China. While new mines are being built in the US. It will be some time before they come on-line. Anything that uses Rare-Earth magnets (Nearly all permanent magnet products_ from toys to those on military vehicles, get the base material from China. China has increased the raw material price by 3-6 times what they were 1 year ago. WHY?? They want the upper level assembly, they want to sell the motor (or alternator for wind energy). They are not just protecting, they are trying to destroy manufacturing capacity globally for all but those in China. The problem, until new mines exist, theres not much that can be done, without bringing manufacturing to a halt do to a total lack of material.

This is just one example -- it doesnt get much press -- but this is a BIG problem. We can talk about deficits, we can talk about the middle east. But we ignore Obamas total lack of management of the global - political impacts concerning raw material supply and the impact on the future of the country. In a few years (less than 5), China will have the manufacturing capacity to consume 100% of all magnet material produced globally and most of it comes from China. Obama can talk about alternative energy, but he cannot think far enough ahead to understand what the impact is on raw material markets to support the demand once the demand is here.

Hoenstly -- I feel that a true business person (not necessarily a man) would have a more far reaching vision and would not have missed this fact.

If the US brought all of its manufacturing back to the States it would not have an economic problem and low unemployment

And NONE of our so-called "representatives" will do anything about it including "the president".
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Keep on "voting"......hahahahahahahahahahahaha

American companies, producing American products, in China, for the Chinese market. How does this help the American worker?
American companies no longer need the American middle class.They will sell to China, where the middle class is growing.

China does not respect our copy right laws and steals our technology, pirates goods and movies. We have done little to correct this theft. IMF predicts China will surpass the US economy by 2016.

Not surprised at all. The belief that China would somehow reciprocate the spirit of "free trade" after dominating the import of cheap goods was always a joke. Somehow it was ok to look the other way while China jailed and tortured it's own people to further it's oppression as long as American and foreign companies could produce a profit off of them. Then the practice protectionism to stop foreign companies from succeeding on their own turf. That's what you get American people, when you don't pay attention to where your stuff is made.